Creating Devoted Customers with Imaginative Service

Imaginative Service: Being Really Good

“When people ask me how do you make it in show business,” says famed actor Steve Martin,  “what I always tell them — and nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear.  What they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — But I always say:  “Be so good they can’t ignore you.  If somebody’s thinking, How can I be really good? People are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.” 

Imaginative service is all about being really good.  It means customers experiencing you pushing it to the top.  The pursuit of excellence says to customers, “You are so important to me that you get my absolute very best.”  “Being really good” includes service with an attitude—an unmistakable disposition of joy and confidence.  It includes paying attention to the details that, improperly maintained and managed, can spell mediocrity to the customer.  It means staying on top of the subtle signals customers experience that might disappoint.  It involves thinking beyond your customer’s needs to their unspoken aspirations.  And, it encompasses insuring customers witness internal service—colleague to colleague—that matches the same standard of distinction. 

If your customers gave your service a letter grade, what grade would you get?  What steps can you take to make “All A’s” on your next customer report card?  Give your customers the best that you have, and their best will come back to you.  

Imaginative Service: Indifferent Service: Rx for Customer Churn

“We’re on break!” the warehouse attendant barked in response to the customer’s repeated, “Hello! Anybody home?” as he waited for assistance at the service desk.  It was the customer’s third encounter with apathy that Monday. The first was the coffee shop employee who gave him a curt, “what’s good about it?” response to his morning greeting.  The next was the gas station owner who offered no verbal response or eye contact as he enriched the station’s coffers by twenty bucks.  And now, “We’re on break!”

Apathy comes in many shapes and sizes.  It can be complete emotional indifference by the cashier, the sleep-walking actions of a hotel housekeeper, or the wooden sound in the customer service representative’s voice.  Apathy robs work teams of energy, marriages of romance, and organizations of much needed service sensitivity.  While not a life-threatening malady, it is a spirit-squashing affliction that communicates a deadly message of indifference to customers. Continue to spend your money with us or not, says the language of apathy – we’re okay either way.

But, there is a bigger price today for apathy lived out loud.  Customers go away.  As customers’ bank accounts get thinner and the budgets get scarier, they are no longer tolerant of apathy.  They want good service or they are “outta here.”  There was a time when it took bad service to send them packing; today, all it takes to loose a customer is indifference.  What are your doing to light the fire in all those serving around you?

 

Imaginative Service: Has Service Gotten Worse?

Remember the scene in Back to the Future when a customer pulled into a gas station and squeaky clean attendants cheerfully washed the windshield and checked the engine fluids?  Audiences laughed at the obvious spoof.  

Was that extraordinary service?  Not really.  It was typical neighborly care by local employees with time to leisurely serve one customer at a time.  They worked for an enterprise with healthy margins, friendly competition; and without the scrutiny of regulators, the screams of litigious consumers, or the impatience of shareholders.  They served customers with limited choices, relatively low expectations, and plenty of time to wait.  

Times have surely changed.  Perhaps the gap between good and bad service today is less about how far the bottom has dropped and more about how high the ceiling has been raised.   A major global survey on customer service recently conducted by Accenture found that 33% of customers said their expectations for service quality are higher this year than last year.

But, a growing number of companies are improving communications with customers so expectations are more realistic, finding better tools to gather customer intelligence to be more precise in offerings.  More are taking care of those who take care of customers.  And, more are using service hiccups as tools for improvement, not just as alarms for damage control.

The payoff is as unmistakable.  Look at the bottom lines of Nordstrom, Target, Publix, Amazon.com and Costco.  As customers rave about great service, investors rave about increasing business growth and profits.  Is your customer service keeping ahead of your customers’ expectations? 

 

 

Imaginative Service: Service as Pain Remover

A very gloomy Wall Street Journal on a very long flight left me with a very bad headache.  And, I never get headaches!  As soon as I exited the jet way at the San Francisco  Airport, I headed for the nearest newsstand for some relief—Advil.  The vendor was about to close but I talked him into selling me his last package.  I opened the plastic package and removed the two tablets in foil for some quick relief.  Tucked behind the foil was a collapsible paper cup just big enough for two large swallows of water. 

I laughed out loud.  What genius!  What simplicity!  What great service!  I could almost feel my headache start to dissipate.  And, I had not yet taken the pain relievers.

Customers are getting more headaches than normal these days.  The economic recovery seems slow and uncertain; layoffs, bankruptcies and foreclosures appear to increase.  If customers have personally been spared disappointment, they have plenty from family or friends who have not.  So, customers drag their woes into stores along with their thinning wallets.  

Why not give them a “two-swallow paper cup.”  That cup might take the form of much longer patience when a customer frets over minutia.  It might be a sincere, unexpected smile.  It might be a random act of kindness targeted at a familiar service challenge—a long wait time, a crowded check-out line, or laborious required paperwork.  

How can you use service as an antidote to customer pain and anxiety?  Do your customers see you as someone who is a pain remover?   What’s your free paper cup?

 

Imaginative Service: Serving From the Heart

Service:  n. ser’· vice  1. assistance that benefits another. 2. contribution. 

When we take the car in to be repaired, we bring certain expectations along with the vehicle.  We expect the work to be done accurately with limited waiting.  We expect the mechanic to “clean up after himself.”  We expect the repair to solve the problem.  We also expect to pay a fair price for the work.  We only positively recall such a standard encounter if the experience exceeds our expectations.  Positive service memories are only about unexpected service gifts--contributions that exceeded expectations.

Enhancing the worth of the server-to-customer exchange comes from a spirit of generosity.  If the auto mechanic takes the time to explain the repair in a way that helps prevent a future occurrence or if the service writer leaves an ice-cold bottle of water in the car cup holder, we would describe that repair-for-money exchange as “great service” and tell our neighbors. 

Customers feel valued when something special has been added to their experience.  Generosity at the front line does not mean “giving away the shop;” it means finding simple ways to enrich the experience.  Generosity becomes imbedded in cultures when leaders lead with an attitude of abundance. 

Would your customers describe you as a “giver” or a “taker?  Are you contributing to the relationship value or solely focusing on the transaction costs? 

Imaginative Service: Majoring in the Minors

Service air is the givens in a service encounter.  Like the air we breathe, we take service air for granted unless it is removed or threatened.  If the commercial plane we board lands in the right city, we don’t cheer; but, if it lands in the wrong city, we are upset.  We assume banks will be safe, hotels comfortable, and hospitals clean.  However, capitalizing on a “taken for granted” attribute can offer a competitive advantage.

The Columbia Tower Club in downtown Seattle has four stalls in the ladies restroom designed so the commodes face the outside of the building.  The exterior wall it looks out on is wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling window.  Since the Club atops a high-rise building, a visitor sitting on the toilet can enjoy a panoramic view of downtown!  Patrons of the club would assume the restrooms would be spotless and well-appointed.  They would not expect a “john with a view!”

When Domino’s Pizza hit the marketplace with their promise of pizza delivery in thirty minutes or the pizza was free, they quickly “owned” the pizza delivery business.  If you asked pizza delivery customers if they expected their pizza to be delivered in thirty minutes or less, they would say “yes.”  However, attaching a guarantee not only made the feature apparent, it showed the feature off to the point other pizza delivery companies scrambled to match Domino’s offering. 

What aspect of your service do your customers “take for granted?”  What steps can you take to boldly show it off? 

 

Imaginative Service: Delivering Concierge Service

Great concierges are intensely loyal to a customer.  Read that line again and pay attention to the singular object of the phrase “loyal to.”   They do not think of the target of their service efforts in the plural . . . they think only in the singular.  They are service choreographers—managing an amalgamation of diverse elements, big and small.  A waitress might be friendly, but if she can’t get orders right, her weaknesses overshadow her strengths. The call center phone rep might be knowledgeable and efficient, but if he has little patience for customer problems, his cognitive gifts are lost amid the interpersonal flaws.

Effective service choreography means combining a “jack of all trades” capacity with an exceptional resourcefulness.  Like seasoned event planners, concierges manage the flow and pace of the experience—concentrating on the ease, agility, and effectiveness of the service they provide.    They are superb at “backward serving.”  That means having a clear picture of what the outcome should be, then working backward from that goal to ensure the reality matches the vision.   It means having a sixth sense for anticipating what can go wrong in service encounters.   Only with this clear picture and early warning capacity can you set about ensuring the experience product matches the experience plan. 

What are you doing to help your customers view you as a great concierge?  Are you paying attention to the details with the same vigilance as the big stuff?  Do your customers get the feeling they are your only customer?

Imaginative Service: The Magic of Service Invisibility

This photo is a powerful symbol of service invisibility.  Here’s the back story.  Luxury hotels of yesterday were concerned about protecting guests’ privacy.  Housekeepers never wanted to disturb.  During the wee hours of the morning, housekeepers leaned a broom straw against the bottom of the guest room door.  A straw in place signaled the guest was in the room; knocking on the door to clean the room only happened if the straw was disturbed.  It seemed awe inspiring to guests to return to their freshly cleaned room without ever having experienced the intrusive knock on the door. 

Invisibility is the art of making invisible something traditionally visible and perhaps less than exciting to customers.  The tactic is particularly suitable for service processes that have historically been done in plain sight but if hidden or disguised would enhance the customer’s experience.  USAA uses invisibility in its system for capturing all customer correspondence to make it available to any call rep.  It eliminates the need for customers to be passed around to find someone who knows how to help them. 

The primary payoff of Invisibility is that it makes service feel totally seamless.  It frees up servers to deal with customers directly instead of being tied to administrative processes that frustrate both the customer and the server.  

Where along your customer’s service trail are there negatives or nuisances that could be hidden or disguised?  How can you make service seem simple and seamless? 

Imaginative Service: Making it Happen

Three turtles sat on a log in the edge of the swamp.  One decided to jump in.  How many are now on the log?  Nope, there are still three.  Deciding and doing is not the same thing.   Until you execute, all decisions are just plain old intentions.   Execution—putting skin in the game--is the true test of commitment.  “I believe, I support, I approve” are all just weasel words unless they are coupled with visible demonstration.

Working with senior leaders in major organizations who struggle with the arduous journey of becoming more customer-centric, we are frequently reminded of what our mothers told us about “the road to hell.”  Creating a great, compelling service vision is important.  Crafting clear, customer-focused service standards and norms are vital.  Selecting people with a service attitude is major.  Training people in how to deliver great service (or how to effectively lead those who serve) is crucial.  Determining the metrics and indicators of great service is imperative.  But, in the end, all the planning and preparing is “just getting ready to.” 

People judge your position by the one you take, not by the one you propose.  Are you delivering or just intending?  Get off the log!

Evidence: The Missing Link in Culture Change

A compelling demonstration of culture change success is a book with the word “Way” in its title.   The Disney-Nordstrom-Marriott-Southwest Airlines Way says that particular culture was sufficiently consistent and effective that it could be codified and portrayed by a business writer.

There are other books without “Way” but aimed at a simpler theme.  The Starbucks Experience, The New Gold Standard, The Perfect Store, It’s Not About the Coffee, More Than a Motorcycle parade their subjects as achieving “exemplar” status—a role model to be studied and emulated.  

They all had a dream—a persuasive vision about a unique customer experience.  They all had clear direction—standards, norms and metrics that guided operation and practice.  But the link that turned a compelling dream into cultural DNA was evidence—concrete indicators that ferreted out clear demonstration from mere intention.    Evidence is the physician’s link between symptom and diagnosis; the contractors link between blueprint and final inspection. 

Becoming an organization known for consistently great service requires more than high hopes, super training, terrific support, focused coaching and memorable celebrations.  It takes key performance indicators—evidence—that make the definition of mediocrity and excellence unmistakable and irrefutable.  Doctors do not prescribe medications based solely on an impassioned patient’s “I feel really bad.”  Do your associates know what great service looks like in action?  Are service objectives laced with concrete evidence of results or are they merely filled with arguable examples of activity?  Greatness is about what we do, not about what we intend.